 The following year he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the House of Lords.In 1859 he was admitted to the Privy Council and appointed Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard under Lord Palmerston, a post he held until the government fell in 1866, the last year under the premiership of Lord Russell.Apart from his political career, Lord Ducie was Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire between 1857 and 1911 and Lord Warden of the Stannaries in Cornwall and member of the Council of the Prince of Wales between 1888 and 1908.